November 16, 2005

Israeli Capt. Speaks on Mideast Conflict

By | November 16, 2005

Former Israeli Defense Force (IDF) spokesperson Capt. Jacob Dallal spoke at yesterday’s Cornell Israel Public Affairs Committee meeting, discussing the current situation in Israel and the media’s representation of events in the Middle East over the last five years.

The former deputy head of the Spokesperson’s Unit’s International Press Office began his address on Israeli military and media affairs by saying he has observed “a shift” over the last year in the tone of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“[Now] there is a mold which has been set that gives the conflict stability or predictability,” Dallal said.

He attributes this change to the death of Yasser Arafat and the disengagement, removal of Israeli settlers from territories in Gaza and the West Bank.

Dallal said the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians “is like a war and not like a war.” He elaborated by saying, “The numbers that we’re dealing with are the numbers of a war,” but more than two-thirds of the Israelis killed were civilians. Dallal said nearly 1,100 Israelis have been killed since September 2000, when the Camp David talks between Ehud Barak and Arafat broke down. He compare that number to the 800 killed during the officially declared 1967 Six Days’ War.

After 131 Israelis died in March 2002, the month of heaviest Israeli casualties, Dallal said there was a “strategic shift” in the way Israel dealt with terrorism.

“Israel began to get a grip on terror, thanks to the Israeli army’s actions in the territories,” he said.

Nightly arrests in the West Bank, targeted killings in Gaza that “crippled” the Hamas leadership and the security fence all contributed to what Dallal sees as a more stable phase of the conflict.

Despite its controversial existence, Dallal said the security fence has been tremendously successful in keeping Israel safe from terrorists. There have been only two major attacks in the area near the northern West Bank, where the fence is complete, and neither of those were a result of infiltrating the wall. Both terrorists went through checkpoints.

Along with the new shift in military strategy, Dallal believes that “Israeli society is in a much better position to keep going.”

People are on the streets, riding buses and eating at cafes, all signs that Israel “persevered despite the terror.”

Dallal called that “Israel’s greatest achievement” because “the idea of the terrorists was to break the spirit of Israeli society.”

Dallal took questions from the audience.

Jamie Weinstein ’06, CIPAC president and a Sun columnist, asked if he thought the Palestinian National Authority under Mahmoud Abbas could control Hamas. Dallal said the Palestinian government absolutely has the capacity to rein in terrorist organizations. He said Abbas needs to disarm Hamas before allowing them into the government as a regular political party to ensure stability.

One student asked how many Palestinians have been killed in the five years of conflict. Dallal said 4,000 but that the differentiation between combatants and civilians is harder to establish than for Israelis because women and children are sometimes suicide bombers and, therefore, combatants.

Palestinian civilian casualties are restricted mostly to people caught in the crossfire, something Dallal said the IDF takes very seriously.

“Everything has to be done to keep uninvolved citizens out of the conflict,” Dallal said.

Dallal said that because Palestinian terrorists purposely hurt civilians, “There can be no moral equivalence” between the two military tactics.

Dan Tevet ’06, CIPAC treasurer, asked whether there is a pro- or anti-Israeli spin in the American media, and Dallal said our media is much fairer than its European counterpart. However, American news sources “tend to come down hard on military activity, especially in an urban environment,” he said.

In closing, Dallal spoke of the different tone of Palestinian and Israeli messages. The Palestinian narrative, he said, is positive and simple. Focusing on self-determination and freedom, their message appeals to a Western audience because of its Western ideals.

On the other hand, the Israeli narrative has been about fighting terror and suicide bombers, a negative message. Dallal said there has been, and needs to continue, a focus on the positive statement that “we have the right to exist in the state of Israel.”

Anna Weiss ’07, CIPAC’s vice president for advocacy, said she was “really excited” for Dallal because he was able to give a different perspective. Because he has spent so much time in Israel and in the IDF, Weiss said that Dallal was very different from most of the professors and other regular speakers hosted by the organization.

Related

ByNovember 17, 2005

A friend of mine is writing a term paper on Billie Holiday’s classic “Strange Fruit.” “What’s that?” I asked. I’d never heard of the song before, and I’m admittedly unknowledgeable when it comes to jazz. Old school in my mind stretches to the time of Motown standards and Stevie Wonder. I regret knowing so little about Billie Holiday’s career. I’ve seen the iconic images of the notorious jazz artist every now and again and they always make me think, “that Lady had style.” After hearing about the song, I had to learn more. Partly because I’m constantly curious, but also because I’m a history major, and well, I live for this stuff. “Strange Fruit” is an island all to itself. Few songs braved its subject matter, decrying the horror of lynching violence once rampant in the south, in the 1930s. It was spontaneous and unexpected. The song began as a poem by Abel Meeropol, who went under the alias “Lewis Allan.” I can imagine it wasn’t safe to write anti-lynching sentiments during the time, even for a Jewish schoolteacher. Stories conflict as to how the poem wound up in the young budding starlet’s hands. Some aim to discredit Holiday’s involvement in her decision to perform the song, and state that she was simply told to sing with no knowledge of the song’s somber message. I view this version of events as improbable. Whatever the truth in the end, it was Holiday’s performance and her solid delivery that brought Meeropol’s poem to an unassuming American public. It was Holiday who distinctly interpreted the song and made it her own, standing in the spotlight at each show, vulnerable to ridicule and rejection before live audiences. She performed the song for the first time in 1938. Record companies wouldn’t dare touch the song to produce as an actual side. The heat around its controversial topic was just too strong especially when Jim Crow still had a heinous stronghold over parts of the country. But “Strange Fruit” became a Holiday favorite regardless and she performed the song night after night. It was finally recorded in 1939 to mixed receptions of intrigue, but more so to puzzlement over what to do with such a strong statement about America’s ghastly secret. Holiday became closely linked with the recording and had to endure discrimination and abuse from those upset by her daring attempt to elucidate truth through the uncharacteristic song. A wailing trumpet cries all by its lonesome and a solemn piano follows, all occurring one minute before Holiday sings a single note. The words are unnerving. Allegorical references abound but the heavy message is clear. It’s known what Meeropol makes mention of, but never reiterates excessively. The song’s nuances are warmly poetic, but not trite. Provocative and allusive, they are a dignified acknowledgment of a dark part in our nation’s history, and a respectful nod to the victims that the endemic poison swallowed whole. Holiday’s voice soars over piercing notes high and low, evoking a slow and quiet but telling pain. Here, an excerpt: “Pastoral scene of the gallant South / The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth / Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh / And the sudden smell of burning flesh / Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck / For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck / For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop / Here is a strange and bitter crop.” Holiday was only 24 years old when she performed the song for the first time in the Cafe Society. In later years following its groundbreaking New York debut, the song became a symbol during the civil rights movement and was internationally received, re-recorded by music greats including Nina Simone, Cassandra Wilson and Terence Blanchard among others. A book about the song, Strange Fruit: Billy Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights by David Margolick, quotes jazz critic Leonard Feather singing its praises as the “first significant protest in words and music, the first unmuted cry against racism.” Billie Holiday went on to have a successful yet turbulent career. A fallible being, Holiday’s voice was silenced when her life ended from years of substance abuse. She was 44 years old. What a gift she had to give to the world. I am grateful for having been introduced to this remarkable song.Archived article by Sophia AsareSun Staff Writer

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BEIJING — Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings III concluded his visit to Peking University yesterday afternoon after spending a day finalizing the China and Asia-Pacific Studies program with Peking University president Zhihong Xu. The Cornell delegation used the time to discuss U.S.-China relations with Peking University faculty in a symposium titled “Beyond ‘Strategic’: the Cultural-Educational Challenges Facing U.S.-China Relations.” Cornell’s Prof. Sherman Cochran, the Hu Shih professor of Chinese history, moderated the discussion, which included Prof. Chen Jian, history, and several Peking faculty members from their School of International Relations.